Columns
Media Lynching
of U.S. Rep. Kildee?
November 24, 2011FLINT — Dale Kildee has represented the battered city of Flint in Congress ever since the waning days of President Ford’s administration, without the slightest bit of scandal.
He was staunchly pro-union and pro-teacher, even when that meant sailing into the wind. Nobody ever accused him of the slightest breach of ethics. On the contrary, he returns thousands in unspent congressional office funds to the U.S. Treasury every year.
Though he was scarcely flashy or a major power in the U.S. House, nobody doubted he could go on getting elected until his teeth fell out, but at 82 his health is beginning to fail and early last summer he announced it was time to retire.
That should have been that. But suddenly, he is at the center of what some are calling a sex scandal — and others say is nothing more than an outrageous, irresponsible, politically motivated attack.
Worse, some say it represents a new low for journalism in this state. This began this week, when, first, the right-wing Washington Times and then media throughout Michigan began reporting allegations that the congressman had improperly touched a teenaged male cousin of his almost half a century ago.
Kildee, who has a wife and three children, indignantly denied the allegations and noted that the man making them had a history of mental illness. The only “evidence” was the charges made by the alleged victim, one Patrick Kildee, and statements from some family members saying they believed him.
Nevertheless, WNEM-TV in Flint broadcast a story about the allegations, which included graphic detail about the alleged touching. (Asked about the fairness of this, a Missouri-based lawyer for the station responded with a letter saying, “The First Amendment protects discussions of public officials,” and added that Michigan law did the same, and claiming no actual malice was meant by the station.)
This happened even as the woman who first broke the story, a Washington-area blogger named Susan Bradford, seemed to be having second thoughts. “I don’t know whether the allegations are true or not and merely reported that they were being made,” she said in an e-mail message, adding, “I am urging the members of the press and public to withhold judgment until all the facts were in.”
Patrick Clawson, a former CNN investigative reporter who now lives in Flint, calls this a “media lynching.” “I just cannot believe that any responsible news organization would prepare and hype and broadcast a story based solely on the ravings of what the station itself identifies as a fellow who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and manic depressive disease,” he said.
Incidentally, while Clawson says he has known the congressman for many years, they aren’t political allies. In fact, Pat Clawson has run for office as a Libertarian.
Nor does he treat government or institutions with kid gloves. Last year it was Clawson who uncovered the news that then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm had appeared before media cameras and awarded a tax break to a convicted embezzler and fraud artist whose business was entirely a scam, and who was then led back to jail.
As for the Kildee allegations, he says, “These charges are nothing new. They were being shopped around by the Republican Party more than a year ago.” The reporter said he and another well-known investigative reporter independently checked them out and concluded “these allegations could not be substantiated in any way, and were most likely false.”
“The real story here is how incompetent journalists and partisan political opponents came together to smear a very good and decent man,” Clawson said. Though the congressman is retiring, the leading candidate to replace him is his nephew, Dan Kildee, the former Genesee County treasurer, whose name may now be blemished.
Indeed, there seems to be some evidence of this. The Flint Journal has reported that the detailed broadcast interviews with the accuser and his family were “coordinated by Genesee County Republican Party Chairwoman Prudy Adam and Christian broadcaster Jon Yinger,” a regular GOP campaign contributor.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Clawson said. “If I had turned up any credible evidence that Dale Kildee were a pedophile, I’d have hung him or anyone out to dry. But there wasn’t anything there.
“What I do know is that if I tried to broadcast this at CNN or NBC, I would have been kicked out and fired.”
Perhaps the worst thing about allegations of this kind, he and others added, is that once they are given wide media coverage, it is impossible to erase them from the public mind, fair or not.
“Journalistic standards have changed over the years, and I am afraid for the worse,” Clawson said.
In this case, it is hard not to agree.
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November 23, 2011 · Filed under Jack Lessenberry
8 responses so far ↓
1 Fiona Lowther // Nov 24, 2011 at 5:59 am
Too many members of the so-called “news” media have sunk to unprofessional and irresponsible depths. The mainstream media should report on the dishonest and unethical actions of public officials and corporate heads, so that the public would know what’s going on that directly affects our livelihoods, our lives and the future of our country. Instead, too often we are kept in the dark, largely because the media are too busy covering celebrities and trying to come up with headlines involving sex, Sex, SEX.
In Ben Hecht’s autobiography, a city editor asks the young cub reporter, “Do you know what sex fiends do — they sell newspapers!”
Years ago, when I lived in Dale Kildee’s district, I did volunteer work in one of his campaigns. My husband had known Dale Kildee since their teen years together. He is a moral, decent, upstanding man who has represented his constituents with honor and dignity. For the media to shine a glaring spotlight on him because of a totally unsubstantiated accusation by a mentally ill person whose family seems to be out for money, is reprehensible.
Dale Kildee has done nothing to be ashamed of, but the detracting members of the news media sure have. This is just one more brick in a monument to the news media’s too frequent contemptibility.
It is also an example of why we need some form of oversight and accountability with regard to bloggers, who can, with impunity, say anything they want to on the Internet, even if it’s grossly false. “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)
2 Anagnorisis // Nov 24, 2011 at 7:45 am
As reiterated by those in the know, anyone may now accuse anyone of anything, unleashing the everready phalanxes of opprobrium, the system then taking over in its Leviathan due process protracted bureaucratic insistency which once initiated never ceases. Moreover, sexual innuendo, now the sensationalists’ latest thing, might be advanced unto proclaiming that persons changing diapers are guilty of sexual predator pedophilia, the video cameras installed in nurseries nationwide being the clear evidence for conviction and RSO labeling for life.
3 harvey bronstein // Nov 24, 2011 at 1:53 pm
The people to be criticized is not the snake of a “reporter”, but rather the Republicans who think that this will hurt Dan Kildee’s chances. They are wrong to do this and they are wrong to think that it will work. Long live Rep. Dale Kildee and long live future Rep. Dan Kildee.
4 Suretta Must // Nov 24, 2011 at 2:30 pm
It never ceases to amaze me how low a Republican will stoop to win an election. I continue to wonder about the ethics of these people….and they continue to demonstrate their lack there of!
5 Ireene // Nov 25, 2011 at 10:15 am
Ah, what depths the MORALLY superior will sink to. The man is retiring and someone remembered being “touched” 50 years ago. Apparently being a competent and caring representative for your constituents is now a problem for Republicans.
6 Kyle Melinn // Nov 26, 2011 at 12:12 am
Jack brings up some good points about the slipshod journalism displayed by Ms. Bradford, who relied on someone else’s interview with the accuser’s mom and sister to conduct a true hatchet job on Dale Kildee. Bradford confessed doubts later about the accuracy of her own reporting nicely sets up her and The Washington Times for some legal trouble.
However, Jack’s “media lynching” lecture is a bit much. This affair didn’t really get legs nationally until the Congressman issued a statement in which he said he’s getting the FBI to look into an alleged blackmailing scheme in which extended family members were using this alleged and “untrue” sexual assault charge of 50 years ago to extract Social Security payments and other federal goodies from him. This statement alone is news by anyone’s definition.
And in covering this issue last Monday for MIRS, I found in the dozens of national and state accounts that at least 75 percent if not 90 percent of the coverage not from the Flint Journal led with the Kildee accusation/denial. They had nothing else to go with. Bradford never talked to the accuser, Patrick Kildee, and since the guy is a hermit living in a trailer in the middle of nowhere, no one could get him either. Dale Kildee’s pre-emptive strike framed Patrick as a recluse crackpot with a criminal record who pushed this story because he failed to get a Congressman to make taxpayer rain for his family.
WNEM was the only outlet to have Patrick Kildee on tape but their package didn’t air until 11 p.m. Monday, nearly 36 hours after the Washington Times post caught fire. By then, the story was old, Patrick’s credibility was shot, and their ambush interview of a frail 82-year-old Dale Kildee trying to get into a school to give a speech solidified sympathy for the old guy.
Media lynching? Bradford and The Washington Times have problems. WNEM at least interviewed the accuser, which is more than what the mainstream media have on Herman Cain. The Flint Journal went bonkers on the story, but they were the only outlet Dale Kildee talked to, a brillant strategy to neutralize the hometown coverage.
As for everyone else, I’d argue they did Kildee a favor by leading with his side of the story, painting his accuser as a nutjob and then dropping the story like a hot potato.
7 Sylvia McCollough // Nov 28, 2011 at 7:53 pm
This is truly the lowest of the low for the Michigan Republican Party! Shame on Them!! Has the political process really sunk so low that anything is acceptable in order to win an election? Governor Bill Milliken, (yes, a Republican) created an Ethics Committee in the State Legislature when he served as governor, with representation from both political parties; including my then husband, Senator Patrick McCollough. The Ethics Committee was a meaningful, tough watch dog for ethics in Michigan’s political electoral system, and it worked! Of course, those were different days, and we were more concerned with honor, honesty, and abiding by the Rules, than today. I’ve known Dale Kildee since he was a State Legislator, and never, in my 50 years in the political arena, have I ever known anyone more the gentlman, with the highest of integrity and morals than Congressman Dale Kildee, and Dan Kildee follows in the Uncle’s footsteps!
8 Sylvia McCollough // Nov 28, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Jack, just a quick question; The cover photo…is that meant to represent the Legislature or our Thanksgiving dinner? Just sayin’!! Some of those Turkey’s sure look familiar!!
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